People with Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD often have great difficulty in managing their time. This can cause problems with work, school, and even families. Being chronically late for work can cause your boss to lose trust in your abilities, jeopardize your job, and cause distention amongst peers who are always early or on time. Lateness at school can cause your grades to drop if you are missing class or forgetting to turn in assignments. In addition being late to appointments or when it is your turn for the car pool can cause problems with your friends and family.

When one is living with ADD or AD/HD being late is not a deliberate action, although those without Attention Deficit Disorder may fail to realize this fact. Typically those with ADD lose track of time. In addition most ADD or ADHD people multi-task (or complete more than on task at a time) and this multi-tasking can cause one to lose track of the time. When someone with ADD is working on a project, he or she often will hyper-focus on the task at hand.

Hyper-focus is a kind of super-concentration. When one is hyper-focusing time can fly by and the hours disappear before the person realizes how much time has passed. There are ways to help one manage his or her time. For instance, if arriving at work late is a daily occurrence, evaluate what happens before you get to work. Perhaps as one grabs that second cup of coffee he or she gives the daily newspaper one more glance. Suddenly the paper is read and the time has passed, and now you have only 10 minutes for the 20 minute ride to work.

Perhaps by recognizing one of your patterns one can then make changes in the morning routine. Instead of reading the entire paper make a deal with yourself that you can only read the first page and then you have to leave for work. If you have difficulty keeping track of time, set a reminder alarm. This can be the time to stop working and do something else. Almost every cell phone has an easy to set alarm. If you need reminders to take medication or eat, there are multiple alarm devices. If you need a reminder at work, invest in a vibrating countdown timer.

There are even vibrating watches for children to wear in school. Set the timer to vibrate when it is time to turn in assignments, pack their backpack for home, or to go to the school nurse to take afternoon medication. These watches look like any other watch a child might wear and therefore reduces the stand out visibility making a child a target for being different.

Time management is difficult at its best for anyone, but can be especially challenging for people who have Attention Deficit Disorder. Why not learn how to manage time and make life much more manageable. Being late causes one with ADD additional problems and makes one appear uncommitted in their work or school environment. Sometimes it is the simplest ideas that evade us. After I implemented the use of several timing devices in my daily routine my level of stress has declined as I am finding life more manageable now.